Monday, July 28, 2008

Le Grand Chef

Every Friday night Frankie and I aim to go out for a meal for dinner as we don't eat out as much as we used to anymore, as we are trying to save a bit of money. So this Friday night we decided to keep it local and check out the new Korean BBQ in Marrickville. I can't really remember what was in this spot before, but all of a sudden there was a new Korean restaurant with the name Le Grand Chef (not your typical Korean name I am guessing).


The Charcoal Pit

I was a bit scared when they put this in actually cause it started spitting sparks a bit and I was scared Frankie's jumper was going to catch on fire or my hair would turn into a flame ball! Luckily none of this happened.

We ordered a couple of entrees to share which included jap chae (my favourite) and this egg roll dish, which didn't quite look like the picture on the menu..

Also every Friday Frankie goes to his local wine cellar near work and picks a really good bottle of wine for our dinner. This week it was Omrah

Very nice wine I must say. Being a shiraz it was quite bold and flavourful. Yeah I am not taking up any job soon of reviewing wines, don't worry!

We were handed a few of the traditional banchan which seem to be different in each restaurant, but always features the Korean staple of kim chi.

Kim Chi

Beans

These beans I had not seen before. They were just green beans with a sauce over the top, which seemed to me to be thousand island dressing?

Potato Salad

We also got a potato salad which I had never had before, which was ok, but could have used a bit more flavour.

Jap Chae - $10

The Jap Chae was very good. It's sort of like the Korean spaghetti bolognese. I am going to try cooking this one day cause i love it and it doesn't seem to be too hard to cook, just a lot of chopping of vegetables.


Egg Roll - $8

This just tasted like an omelette to me. It was nice, but nothing special. They actually brought us another plate, cause the dish didn't look anything like it did in the photo, although the replacement wasn't too much better, except that the replacement was hot!


Some places you can cook the meat yourself, but in this place they put it on the stove for you, which is nice, but if you go to one of those buffet type ones, it's always better to cook the food yourself. We got the combination A dish which was $30 which included pork ribs, and 2 other types of meat (which I couldn't remember what they were). The meat was beautiful and came with 2 dipping sauces which were great as well. There is nothing better than meat cooked over charcoal. Now where can i get one of these for my place...

We also got a free salad each and free fruit at the end of the meal which was a bonus. The staff were lovely and very polite as well, which I have seemed to notice a lot from Korean restaurants which I think is great. If you are in the Marrickville area I recommend you try it out.

Le Grand Chef
Illawarra Road (Just down the road from Pho Bac)
Marrickville

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yum! I love Korean BBQ and especially kimchi - so deliciously sour. I didn't realise there was one nearby in Marrickville. Will have to check it out... Thanks!

susan said...

Hi Christie
I know, Kim Chi is so good, and good for you as well! Yeah it sort of popped out of nowhere. It seems to be busy all the time which is a good indication as well.

Anonymous said...

ohh thats my uncles restraunt hes name is cris but in korean Tae- Young nice place very good meat

Anonymous said...

I'm a regular customer now. My perfect meal for 2 is 3 entrees: the vege glass noodles (I think it's called Jap Chae), fried dumplings and seafood pancake. And they've just introduced this Korean spirit which tastes halfway between a sweet white wine and vodka (alco content is approx 20%). A 375ml bottle is $10. Very good value and although I admit it's an acquired taste, it goes down well with the food.

Anonymous said...

how good is this place.. great people and service, always look for a time when i can go there again... once you have been you "WILL" tell your freinds.
so fresh and different.

Regards,

Ross.

Anonymous said...

Love the seafood pancake and sweet potato noodle dish. Lovely Mr Kim and his charming wife and baby enhance the dining experience. Ask them to turn off the tele - they'll oblige if they can. Ann

Unknown said...

Had an absolutely great time here last night with a group of friends for a birthday. Everything we ordered was delicious, starting with the entrees of dumplings, glass noodles, and seafood pancake to the marinated ribs we ordered for the bbq, and tandoori chicken. The waitress seared the ribs for us and then cut them into individual strips for us. The meat was so tender and tasted fantastic, we had to order a second serving. Everything was so fresh, and halfway through they changed the grilling plate with a new one. Great friendly service all night and good prices for the delicious food you get. We can't wait to go back for more.

, Marrickville